r/technology • u/l0st1nP4r4d1ce • 1d ago

Business Improper redaction reveals Lincoln’s Google Data Center water and electricity usage

https://www.1011now.com/2026/09/30/more-questions-than-answers-about-lincolns-google-data-center-water-electricity-usage/
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u/TBradley 23h ago

The six data centers reporting as of Sept. 30 show a total use of 765 million gallons of water last year, enough water to fill 1,159.93 Olympic-size swimming pools.  More improper redaction shows that the data center using the most water annually is Fireball Group LLC, the Google Data Center in Papillion. Fireball LLC reports 547.88 megagallons for their 2025 Annual Water Consumption.

Force them to upgrade Fireball to use less water for the sake of sane policy making. It is using twice as much water as the other 5 data centers combined. Very on point name though.

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u/KidneylessRat 17h ago

Can I point out that megagallon feels weird? Is it 1mil × 1 gallon or 1gallon6?

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u/LegendEchidna 17h ago

It’s a million gallons

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_MOMS_NAME 5h ago

Mega sounds scarier than million

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u/mathologies 17h ago

Do you think a megawatt is watt⁶?

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u/KidneylessRat 16h ago edited 16h ago

That's a good point. I was thinking more in the sense of gallon isn't using the metric system. So it's base unit isn't 10. So, adding mega 106 is weird.

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u/sticklebat 15h ago

Mega is just a prefix that means “a million of”. In other words, it’s just 106 times the unit, regardless of the unit. There is no need for the unit to be metric.

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u/cansofgrease 8h ago

Unless we're talking about bytes.

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u/sticklebat 7h ago

Even then. Every relevant standards organization defines a megabyte as 106 bytes. Colloquially (and even in some fields), the older usage of convenience as 220 bytes is still common, even though that is now technically a mebibyte. I wish they’d chosen a name that didn’t sound so dumb for that, though.

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u/reflexive-polytope 17h ago

One gallon raised to the 6th power wouldn't even be a unit of volume.

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u/KidneylessRat 16h ago

Indeed. You are right. It was a silly question in the end. Like I said, it felt weird. I got weirded out by an unusual combo haha

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u/reflexive-polytope 16h ago

Happens to the best of us.

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u/DeProgrammer99 16h ago

What do they call volume in 18-dimensional space, anyway?

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u/reflexive-polytope 16h ago

18-volume. Or just volume, if we're doing pure mathematics and the ambient space is 18-dimensional (which isn't the case here).

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u/LambdaNuC 13h ago

You don't like running down to the grocery store and buying hyperdimensional milk?

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u/reflexive-polytope 13h ago

Unfortunately, my stomach is too flat for it. Pity.

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u/soylentblueispeople 17h ago

1 gal × 106 == 1 megagallon.

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u/live22morrow 16h ago

1 million gallons. Using the uncommon metric prefix.